Purritano Selected as Ivy Rookie of the Week Again

Courtesy: Dartmouth

Release: 05/01/2013

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HANOVER, N.H. — For the second time in three weeks, the Ivy League has bestowed its Rookie of the Week honor for baseball upon Dartmouth freshman Joe Purritano. The award is the third weekly award for Purritano this year as he was also the Player of the Week on April 16, and it boosts the Big Green total to 10 for the season, more than any other school in the league.

Purritano hit safely in all five games last week with eight hits in 15 at-bats (.533), including a double and two triples while scoring six times and driving in eight runs. The native of Woodcliff Lake, N.J., also walked four times and was hit by a pitch for an on-base percentage of .650. In a 12-0 victory over Quinnipiac, the designated hitter went 3-for-5 with a double and a triple, both of which drove in a pair of runs for four RBIs in the game. The on Saturday in the first game against Harvard, it was his triple in the fourth with the score tied at one that started a two-run rally in a 3-1 victory to clinch Dartmouth’s sixth straight Rolfe Division title.

Purritano helped the Big Green complete a four-game sweep of Harvard by reaching base three times and scoring twice in an 8-0 blanking of the Crimson, tying the third game in the fourth frame with an RBI single before scoring the go-ahead run in a 4-2 triumph, and finally providing two run-scoring singles in the 9-4 series finale.

For the season, Purritano is batting a robust .354 (fourth in the Ivy League) with a team-best five home runs and 30 RBIs. He currently is riding a seven-game hitting streak during which he is batting an even .500 (11-for-22) and has hit safely in 17 of the past 19 games while posting a .415 average with four homers and 24 RBIs.

Earning spots on the weekly honor roll were senior left-hander Kyle Hunter who threw seven scoreless innings while allowing five hits and a walk with five strikeouts in an 8-0 triumph over Harvard; sophomore infielder Matt Parisi who hit .455 in the five games with three doubles, four runs and three RBIs while fielding flawlessly; and senior right-hander Cole Sulser who went the distance in the division-clinching victory, surrendering just three hits and one run while fanning eight in the seven-inning contest.

Dartmouth (32-7, 15-5 Ivy) travels to Columbia this weekend to take on the Lions (24-19, 16-4 Ivy) in the best-of-three Ivy Championship Series. This is the third meeting in the championship event in the last six years with Columbia winning in Hanover in 2008 and the Big Green emerging triumphant in New York in 2010. The doubleheader Saturday will start at noon, and the decisive game (if necessary) will take place on Sunday at 1 p.m.